Saturday, March 24, 2007

"Ise Imli" for Nupur’s A-Z of Indian Vegetables this week!!! Imli or Tamarind or Tetul is not an integral part of Bengali cooking. If you knock at my doors on a random Tuesday and ask me for some Tamarind, you will have to go back home disgruntled as I generally don’t have any. But since I like sambhar I get some Tamarind paste off and on, so you still might knock and get lucky.

Tamarind however plays a special and coveted role when it comes to “tak” or “chaatni” for Bengalis. Ripe Tamarind mixed with little mustard oil, salt, sugar and a bit of chilli powder (the concoction commonly known as “Makha Tetul”) on a summer afternoon was something we used to drool over as kids and were allowed to have only occasionally. At my Mamarbari (maternal grandparents house) my Ma’s cousin sisters would make this and we would quietly devour it at the corner of the roof on a hot summer afternoon.

We also use Tamarind for making chutney or achaar but they are rarely if ever used in cooking.I was pleasantly surprised when I saw “Ka(n)cha Tetul” or “Raw Tamarind” in my Indian Grocery store. Visions of “Tetul er tak” a light chaatni made with Tamarind mesmerized me and I brought them home. My Ma suggested we pair these up with Raw Green Papaya to make a chaatni and that is what I did. So heres "Pepe Tetul er Chaatni" or "Green Papaya and Tamarind Chutney". We usually have this chutney with lunch or dinner. Its sweet and sour with the Tamarind and little crunchy with the Papaya.

Papaya ~ 1 cup. Unripe Green Papaya peeled and thinly sliced 1 cup. When you cut raw papaya make sure to peel the skin, and when you reach the part which has the white seeds remove the seeds. You should also remove the little hard skin at the centre

Unripe Raw Tamarind ~ 6 cut in halves. Remove the ends and then cut them in halves or more for bigger onesMustard seeds ~ ½ tspSugar ~ Started with 1/4 cup but was a little too sour for us so added 1/6 cup moreGinger Juice ~ 1 tspSalt

OilWater

How I Did It

Pressure cook the papaya slices. Take care that they are just cooked and not very soft. I put them in a separator in my pressure cooker and put water only at the bottom of the cooker, none in the separator. If you want you can do away with this step and cook it later too, I wanted it quick so I pressure cooked.Soak the halved tamarinds in waterHeat OilAdd mustard seedsAs soon as they sputter add the tamarindSaute for couple of minutes and add the papaya.Add salt, water and let it cook. Add water depending on how thick you want your chutney to be.When the tamarind has become soft add the sugar and the ginger juiceLet it cook and the chaatni thicken to your desired consistency. Usually I don't have it very thick

Tip: When you are cutting raw papaya make sure that you remove the seeds and the hard skin next to the skin at the core. I don't know what it is called but if not removed the papaya may taste bitter when cooked. This is for dear Sushma's MTC -- Monthly Cooking Tipology . Check details at her blog Recipe Source

Safety Moment: Women in India and South East Asia and other parts of the world have used papaya for contraception and abortion since long and this is proven by Medical research so be careful to have Papaya when you are expecting. Though small amounts of ripe papaya does not cause any harm check with your doctor for authenticity as I do not know more about this effect. This is for lovely Jyotsna's event Safety Moment. Check more at her blog CurryBazaar

Trivia:Women in India and South East Asia and other parts of the world have used papaya for contraception and abortion since long and this is proven by Medical research so be careful to have Papaya when you are expecting.Papaya is rich in an enzyme called papain and other proteins and used as a digestive medicine (Source: Wiki)

beautiful pic of imli in the basket! we had a huge imli tree in our backyard back home and used to get sacks full of imli, which was then cleaned, deseeded, salted & distributed among relatives all across India.thanks

Papaya Tamarind Chutney new and tasty combination, would love to taste it. We used to pick the tamarinds from the tree and eat with chilli powder and salt. Papaya is one fruit I can't stand the smell texture everything bothers me but have never tried raw one.

NupurThanks for hosting the event, lots of work and I really appreciate your effort :)

SJemniy tetul er chaatni o korte paro

RichaThat must have been fun

MeetaThanks for dropping by

Lindathank you for your lovely words

IndoDid you eat the unripe ones that way too ? I like Ripe Papaya as long as it is firm but Green Papaya we use often to make curries called "Peper Dalna", and even for my daughter's stew thats a often used veggie.

Dear Sandeepa, Goodness of papaya with taste of tamarind - wow! Refreshing to know that raw tamarind can be used like this in cooking. Your awesome tamarind pic. reminded me of the good old times when we kids used to sneak to the backyard and feast on ripe tamarind. Fond memories you have rekindled with this recipe....Thank you.

Sandeepa, When u describe , I can very well imagine its sweet & sour taste...:) I used to eat raw tamarind from my uncle's place...all childhood memories! I liked the second pic with those cute chubby hands :)

Sandeepa, what a lovely combination! I would love to taste it one day. Unripe papaya is not hard to find in Australia, but fresh tamarind is not. *sigh* Recall the day I can get fresh tamarind so easily in Vietnam.

raw tamarind...i am salivating and cant stop it. but must say tamarind and papaya comination which i have never heard of. nevr seen any raw tamarind in indian stores where i go for shopping. just the picture of it with those two loittle cute hands are making me crave for this. i remember we having this huge tree in our hostel and as i our warden was very strict we would climb the tree at night to steal some;) bunch of monkeys, yup thats us;)

Bee,Not only that, they will fry you in hot mustard oil as well and eat you off with little salt and green chillies :)

Trupti, Shn, InjiThanks

ShivapriyaI think you are Padmaja. hey what happened to the little one ?

AnhYeah even I don't see it much here. The ones I got were the sour ones, green inside and unripe.Yesterday however my hubby got a box of raw tamarind which looked same but were "SWEET" !!! The box said they were from Thailand, do you know about this "SWEET TAMARIND" ? It was not at all sour and the insides were ripened too.

ShilpaThese were green, unripe tamarind. the way we do it just cut in halves and toss them in. Now when you are having the chutney you have to deal with hard skin, the seeds everything. That is why it is only served for cozy home lunches :)

SupriyaYou share bee's pic too, monkeying around :) Hope you are not climbing out of the window in UK :)

Thanks, Sandeepa! I did in fact want to write and ask you how you changed your header and how you included the drop-down lists, but I don't see any e-mail address in your profile, and I was afraid to bother you, since I'm sure you get such questions regularly! :) My address is flogrosbif@gmail.com

hey, lovely masthead, I saw it only now! i forgot to tell you in my own comments - will put up the pix you mentioned later and let you know about it. Also, when you do eat that plastic chutney at someone else's place, get a picture and post it, will you? (I'm only half-joking.)

This is my first of many many visits to your blog - I love everything about it. Congratulations.

Here in the Caribbean, we get a lot of tamarind also; we use it to make drink, achaar, and something called tamarind ball (I hope to do a post on that sometime soon). My sister and I used to love eating the ripe tamarind similiar to how you mentioned. Ours would just have chili and salt and we did not have a name for it, we would just say that we are eating tamarind with pepper and salt :))

Hi sandeepapapaya chutney is looking good.my mom used to make this.yummy!!Actually the elders say not to use papaya and as well as the pineapple also.But Now a days doctors are saying that there is no harm in taking papaya in pregnancy.i don't know exactly ..but to give respect to the elders words we don't use them.

Hi Sandeepa, I have seen the post again - those fingers pressing down on the tamarind - how did you ever think of that? That image makes me feel as though right now that imli is touching my fingers too - the tangible experiece - wow!

I also see a lot of fresh tamarind in the Indian stores Sandeepa. on seeing that I remmeber in my childhood days , me and my friend used to mix tamarind with salt and chilli powder and eat it.. it would taste yummm. tamarind with papaya is new to me.. i bet it would taste wonderful.

what a combination! a little taste of india right here. my uncle has an imli tree and we used to spend the summe sitting under it, picking off imlis till we get a stomach upset. did u use the thai sweet kind or is it really indian?

These were the INDIAN ones. Since we don't use much tamarind I did not know about the Thai variety. After first suceess with the Unripe INDIAN tamarind last weekend I sent D for some more and he came back with the box of the Thai Tamarind. We didn't know it was SWEET until we cut them up and now don't know what to do with those

KausumKya re, khali-pili timepass ? And I don't know if its a all Bong thing, I am yet to meet a Bong Man who likes/loves tamarind

Gattina and all who are new to Raw tamarind

The way we made this may not be liked by everyone as eating it is fun but messy, you have to bite and remove the hard skin and then spit out the seeds and enjoy the tamarind. Not good if are having guests over, fun if you know what you are doing and having a quiet home lunch

Me too, I also haven't met a bong man and all bong women are crazy about tamarind.

Btw, the usage is a little wrong, "Kya re, khali philli ka timepass nako" but if you want to blend in with crowd; the usage would be "Timepass mat kar!" or "Dimag mat hata!" :-) (smile when you say both of them)

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Predominantly a Bong, who loves being a Mom and loves to cook among other things for the li'l one and the big ones.She loves to write too and you will find her food spiced up with stories. Mainly a collection of Bengali Recipes with other kinds thrown in, in good measure. A Snapshot of Bengali Cuisine